12 May 2011

Internet shopping - update

This is a follow-up on the below post (Internet shopping - what to do).

Today, 6 days after I wrote 'The Company', threatening to out them unless they got their act together, I made one last effort to get hold of them, and get a response other than :"I do apologize, but i am checking on this and will have an answer as soon as possible"Sic!That is the total of the response I got last week; no 'dear ma'am', no signature sign-off, no nothing. Classy, eh ?

BUT I waited until today, and then threw myself into a last-ditch effort.To try and get some attention, other than the patently incompetent person with whom I had hitherto "communicated", I cc'ed the mail to all and sundry on the company's web-page, including the company CEO. The bottom-line of my mail was, that I threatened to put a name on the below post, and to do so within 24 hours unless someone got their act together.

This FInally, got me a reply that could - in a good light and with a gentle breeze - be considered if not courteous, then at least decent. Still no courtesies like 'dear ms xxx' or the like, and no name-signature on the mail either (just the company address), but at least I finally got a reply which can be summed up with "I'm sure we've refunded your money, but I'll look into it today".

... is it just me who is hopelessly ancient ? Have general courtesies like 'Dear ma'am' and an actual name at the end of a mail really gone so far out of fashion that I should not expect it ? Or is it just a case of 'If I don't tell her my name, she cannot tell on me' ?

A little while later, another of the e-mails I cc'ed to replied, "I'm looking into it, and I'll make sure your money is returned to you"

Well about **** time. Either of those should have been the reply on April 28th (2 weeks ago), and should have come promptly and courteously, not as a somewhat sour response to an out-and-out threat. And if the company, when looking into it, found information that my money had already been returned, and that the glitch was not on their part, they should have sent me another mail informing me of this.

I am (pardon my French) royally pissed off.

What kind of business ignores politely phrased requests, and only react - sourly and with bad grace - to out-and-out threats to their livelyhood (this is a rethoric question, which necessitates no question-mark at the end; the answer is 'no business who wants to stay in business' and should be self-evident).Whatever happened to customer-service and customer-satisfaction?I'm a patient person when it comes to understanding that things can go wrong, for people as well as companies, but in order for me to show patience and tolerance of someone, they need to communicate with me. This has not been the case. And now, when communication seems to finally happen, I find that I'm all out of both patience and tolerance.

Needless to say, that it will be a very long time (probably forever) before I buy any of this company's products again, and it will be the same time-frame for my recommending it again. It is a bummer, because I loved their products, but frankly, I am not prepared to trust a company which acts like this with any part of my money, or - indeed - my time.

SO, now I wait another week, and see if my money is indeed returned. I will not hold my breath.

4 comments:

They have handled this badly all the way around. Sounds to me a little like this is a company that does well enough by word of mouth that they aren't the least bit concerned with upsetting one little customer. You should have at the very least, very least been address by name in your emails.

I still strongly suggest you contact the bank about this. Don't wait another day, just notify them that you are having issues with this company refunding your money. They should have NEVER taken the money when an item wasn't in stock in the first place.

There is no excuse for any of this and I'd cross this company off my list of places to spend money.

One other point, although I aplaud your patience, you need to contact the bank about this. This company is telling you variations on theme about your refund. They are, at least in my eyes, stealing your money and now upset that you've caught them. The bank needs to know this a disputed charge. Let them get your money back. I suspect if you wait another week you'll be in no better circumstance than you are right now.

The policy for Electronic Funds Transfers (ie: debit card transactions) is that there is a window of 60 days to file a dispute at the bank I work for. I would not wait any longer. Your bank or credit card company should credit your account when you file a dispute and then the institution "goes after" the company involved.

Good luck!!! I hope it works out in your favor. It certainly should.reedesph